YnetNews.com reports: “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’s political party was declared legal by Cairo Tuesday, the state news agency MENA said.

The achievement is the movement’s first since its inception, eight decades ago. ‘The commission on party affairs has given its approval for the formation of the Freedom and Justice Party,’ MENA said.

The Muslim Brotherhood was officially illegal but mostly tolerated during the rule of president Hosni Mubarak, ousted in a popular revolt on February 11. It was set up in 1928 and an official ban imposed in 1954, over its suspected involvement in a series of political assassinations in the 1950s, including an attempt on the life of Egypt’s first republican president, Gamal Abdal Nasser.

As the best-organized political movement in Egypt, the Brotherhood announced on April 30 the formation of a ‘non-theocratic party’ to contest up to half of parliament’s seats in a September election…” (The Muslim Brotherhood is as dangerous as the al-Qaeda and Taliban organizations. God help and bless Israel in the near future. Mubarak was kind to Israel; the Brotherhood may change all of Mubarak’s graciousness toward Israel soon.)

Voice of America News reports: “Coptic Christians demonstrated in Cairo on Monday in protest of Muslim-Christian clashes that left 12 dead over the weekend in sectarian violence.

Some of the protesters gathered outside the headquarters for state-run television where a sit-in began.

Demonstrators are demanding that Egypt’s Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi step down and that the arsonists who burned two Coptic churches be brought to justice.

State media have reported that 12 people were killed and more than 220 wounded during two days of sectarian clashes that began late in the poverty-stricken Cairo slum of Imbaba. Medical sources said 65 of the injured were shot.

The demonstration came as Egyptian security detained 23 Egyptians, including two blamed for sparking the riots. Military leaders said that 190 people detained in connection with the violence will face trial in a military court…” (Egypt’s Coptic Christians protected by President Mubarak are facing a great hour of persecution and devastation as the Brotherhood movement once again rears its ugly head – Revelation 6:9; 20:4. See also the next report.)

Reuters reports: “Last January, Nazih Moussa Gerges locked up his downtown Cairo law office and joined hundreds of thousands of fellow Egyptians to demand that President Hosni Mubarak step down.

The 33-year-old Christian lawyer was back on the streets this month to press military rulers who took over after Mubarak stepped down to end a spate of sectarian attacks that have killed at least 28 people and left many afraid.

Those who camped out in Tahrir Square side by side with Muslims to call for national renewal now fear their struggle is being hijacked by ultra-conservative Salafist Islamists with no one to stop them.

‘We did not risk our lives to bring Mubarak down in order to have him replaced by Salafists,’ Gerges said. ‘We want an Egypt that will be an example of democracy and freedom for the whole world.’

Sectarian tensions are not new to Egypt, where Christians make up around 10 percent of the population of 80 million. But the frequency and intensity of clashes have increased since Mubarak’s overthrow.

Many blame a broader weakening of law and order that began as the protests against Mubarak gathered pace and police deserted the streets. Authorities are trying to rebuild security forces to deal with increased lawlessness following mass jail breakouts.

Egypt’s military rulers have vowed to punish those behind sectarian clashes, banned demonstrations outside places of worship and promised to give Christians equal rights.

But Christians say no one has been tried yet for the burning of a church in Helwan, south of Cairo, in March or for violence in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba on May 7 that left 15 people dead. At least 13 died in clashes after the Helwan incident…”